Naturalness as an ethical stance
Idea(l)s and practices of care in western herbal medicine in the UK
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7652870 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nina Nissen (0000-0002-0790-5772, University of Southern Denmark, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 162-176 |
| Publication date | 2015-05-04 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1364-8470 • E-ISSN: 1469-2910 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13648470.2015.1043789 |
| PMID | 26001272 |
| OpenAlex | W1585312509 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 24 |
An association of non-biomedical healthcare with appeals to nature and naturalness, and an invocation of a rhetoric of gentleness, goodness, purity and moral power has been noted previously, and some scholars argue that nature has taken on a meaning broadly opposed to the rational scientific order of modernity. Drawing on an ethnographic study of women's practice and use of western herbal medicine (WHM) in the UK, the intertwining of the perceived naturalness of WHM with distinct care practices points to a further avenue for exploration. To examine patients' and herbalists' discourses of the naturalness of WHM and associated idea(l)s and practices of care, understandings of nature and a feminist ethics of care are utilized as analytical frameworks. The analysis presented suggests that, through WHM, patients and herbalists become embedded in a complex spatio-temporal wholeness and web of care that intertwines past, present and future, self and others, and local and global concerns. In the emerging 'ordinary ethics of care', naturalness constitutes a sign of goodness and of a shared humanity within the organic world, while care, underpinned by idea(l)s of natural and holistic care practices, links human and non-human others. Thus, the naturalness of WHM, as perceived by some patients and herbalists, engages and blends with a continually unfolding field of relationships in the lifeworld(s), where care practices, caring relations and collective wellbeing may constitute an ethical stance that raises deeper questions about the significance of relationality, the values of care/caring and the mutual involvement of nature and human being(s)
Alternative medicine · Naturalness · Traditional Chinese medicine · Traditional medicine · Western medicine · Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies · Ethics in medical practice · Medicine · Psychology
Holism and evolution
Towards an empirical ethics in care
Keywords (Routledge Revivals)
Ordinary Ethics
The Ethics of Care
Nature and Society
Anthropology and Nature
Being Alive
Nature and Social Theory
Qualitative Data Analysis
Health as a meaningful social practice
Diagnosis for Our Times, A
The Subject of Virtue
The Perception of the Environment
Freedom, reflexivity, and the sheer everydayness of ethics
Detraditionalisation, gender and alternative and complementary medicines
Moral Experience
Illness, Biomedicine, and Alternative Healing in Brittany, France
Allergy Narratives in Italy
Care as a Good for Social Policy
| Citations per year | 0.57 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |